Well, this turned out to be more difficult than I thought.
Who here has experience of going to auctions IN PERSON? How do you find them? My Google-Fu is surprisingly weak in this area as I don’t feel like wading through all of the online auctions!
I’m interested in things like estate sales, or auctions where tools or furniture might be be sold.
Am I going to have to gasp subscribe to the AJC or something?
Possibly, or at least buy a copy occasionally and peruse the classifieds.
Antique malls in your area usually advertise these as well.
Auctionzip. https://www.auctionzip.com/ You can enter search terms to sort them out and limit the distance to search. If you sign up for a free membership you can save your search terms and whenever the object of your desires comes up for sale you get an email. Most auctions have a good set of photos showing the items, or at least the highlights.
I have been to many auctions. Going to one tomorrow morning. I’m going for one item and it is almost the last item in the sale.
For estate sales: https://www.estatesales.net
Dennis
Do you have a weekly shopper/advertiser there (they are very common in rural areas)?
You can do Google searches.
Aye, just google “city name auction”.
Craigslist has a “garage sale” category. I usually look in there for estate sales close to me. They aren’t auctions but the prices are usually reasonable. Someone on this board once remarked that garage sales are full of stuff that people wanted to get rid of but estate sales are full of stuff people wanted to keep. That’s my experience too.
The best pickings are on the first day of the sale. Prices usually drop on the last day of the sale but the best items are already gone. If you see something on the first day that you are on the fence about, you can go back on the last day. It never hurts to haggle whenever you go.
And you can set up Google alerts to get notifications of these regularly:
https://www.google.com/alerts
I found these by Googling “metro atlanta auctions -car -auto” and “Atlanta auction houses”:
https://atlantaauctiongallery.com/online-auctions/
Substitute the name of any city(ies) closer to your area for more local results.
When I was a kid, I found out from my dad as he worked for an auctioneer.
I use AuctionZip, but find sometimes it directs me to auction farther out than my search parameters, or sometimes misses nearby auctions. I still look, though. I also have bookmarked the websites of several auction houses after seeing roadside signs.
I bought my farm at an auction. I’d originally gone to look at an antique trunk that was going up for auction. I ended up buying a 160-yr old farmhouse and 14 acres.
StG
Find a person in your area who has been to a few. Ask them. Better than Google.
I bet the SO was irritated about that one …
No SO, just me. I needed a check for 10% down that day, and I didn’t have my checkbook, so I jumped in my car and showed my uncle a picture of the house and property and told him I need $6K. God love him, has he pulls out his checkbook, he said, "Are you sure you don’t want 10K, just in case? These are good relatives to have,
StG
Several good tips already. Another is to google “Auctioneers” instead of “Auction.” That’ll get you to the right websites. Also, if Angie’s list is popular in your area, you can look up auction houses there.
If you want more help, let us know what general area is “local” for you.
That is basically what I was going to say: get in touch with the local auctioneers and have them add you to their contact list. I got well known enough to a couple around me that they started cluing me into things around the region even when they were not involved.
My dad loved auctions when I was little and often took me with him. My first clock radio came from one; pretty sure the family’s first stereo, which I still have, came from one as well.
When I hold an auction for non-payment, I’m required by state law to advertise for two consecutive weeks in a local newspaper.
It uses a search radius, not a Google-like “how far it is to drive” so an auction 50 miles away to the southeast takes 65 miles to drive East and South until you get there.
The distance choices are limited to 30, 50, 100, etc but you can directly edit the URL after you search. It will have a portion like “SearchRadius=50” or whatever you picked. Just delete the 50 and put in what you want.
I got the one item I went for the other day. Best buy of the day would have been a custom $235,000 CNC water jet table with a 4’x 8’ range. They offered up to $150,000 financing for it. It only got bid to $2000. Hah, then they said it had a reserve.
Dennis
That’s one thing Farcebook is actually good for. Just plug [City] auction into the search field and you’ll get a list of all the local auction options in the area. Usually with pics from current and upcoming auctions, though you may have to join the group to see them.